
.3 



^^^^T 



E 458 
.3 

.G25 
Copy 1 



,OYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

H 6 :i 85 E5 O A I> W AY. 



^r«. 43. 



R y. P L Y 

OK 

Messrs. AGENOK DP] GASPAKIN, EDOUARD 

LABOULAYE, HENRI MARTIN, 

AUGUSTIN COCHIN, 

To I'M It 

y0pl llattonal Jeape at |lelu 9^x% 



I. i(;i;riir:ii ^ irii 



THE ADDRESS OF THE LEAGUE. 



i 




NFW VOKK, JA>., 1S6*. 



IS^EW YORK: 

Wm. C. Bryant & Co., Prixtkrs, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty. 

1864. 



LOYAL PUBLIOAT[ON SOCIETY, 



t'lon^fovmallij (uloph-d hy ifu'. atuin'i. iJic Socket//, 

nf Uiiiir>^t :M,-^ih>'j, 11 Fihr, >■>,■>!. ]Si:;;. 

..', TliaL the obji.'i,! of Lbis Oi-gaiii.caUuii is, uikI ;s'a;Ul be Cu'.ifiucd to 
lliu uibliibulioii of JouMiuli' ai;J JJocuiuciiU of uninKalloiiablt; tiud uucondi- 
Lional loyalty througlioufc the Unilod Slatc:^-. tuiJ paillcaliuiy iu the Armies 
now engaged in the siipprei-si-jti of the lu'b-'linn, rmJ to cormteract, as far as 
practicable, tlie efforts now bcinij-niade b , ,:ies of the Government 

and the advocates' of a dl.-'u; ' ' '\ • '• :.d.-; and documents 

of a disloyal chai-aclor. 



()KPiri':!lS OF 'WW. Siu'll'TV. 

I'll >.M lit. 

CHARLES KlXrj. 
MOlUtlS KETCH U>r. 

.'j( CI t l;iry. 

JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, J;:. 

PuSjli<';itiuii CoiitiiiilU f • 

KllANClS LIEHEK, Cuaiu.man, 
•JAMES MoKAYE, GEO. ]'. rUTJSAM, 

JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, ,1k,, CIIAKLES ASTOE 13RISTED, 
GROSVENOr. V. T.OV/'REY. TTTEODORl'] G. GLAURENSKLEE. 

K.vctu«lvc Cou»u»ltl«M-. 

WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, Cii.viuMAX, 
CHRISTIAN E. DETMOLD, SINCLAIR TOUSEY, 

(}EORGE GIBBS, W. C. CHURCH. 

JAMES A. ROOSEVEf-T, CHART-ES GOULD, 



E E P L Y 



OF 



Messrs. AGENOK DE GASPARTN, EDOUARD 
LABOULAYE, HENRI MARTIN,*^ 
AUGUSTIN COCHIN, 



f opl fatioral f engue sf Scto forfi, 



TOGETHKR WITH 



THE ADDRESS OF THE LEAGUE, 



ADOPTED AT THE 



MASS INAUGURAL MEETING, 

In Union S<iiiare, April 11, 1SG3. 



NEW YORK: 
WM. 0. BRYANT & CO., PRINTEllS, 41 NASSAU ST., COR. LIBERTY. 



1864. 



V>^>% '" 




.1 



61505 
105 



V REPLY 



Messrs. AGENOU DE CtASPARIN, EDOUARD LABOU- 
LAYE, HENRI MARTIN, AUGUSTIN COCHIN, 

TO 

TEE LETTER OF THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE. 

TRANSLATED BY JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, Jr. 

Gentlemen, — We would liave thanked you much sooner but 
for tlie prolonged absence of one of our number. It would have 
been painful to us to have lost the collective character of this 
reply ; for the blending of our four names is a proof of that 
great unity of sentiment upon all that concerns the cause of 
justice which by God's favor manifests itself here below, in spite 
of political and religious differences. 

Yet we are careful not to overrate our personal importance. 
The League does not address us as individuals ; it speaks to 
France, who cherishes, as a national tradition, the friendship of 
the United States. It speaks to European opinion, which will 
rise up and declare itself more clearly as it recognizes that the 
struggle is between Slavery and Liberty. 

You have comprehended, gentlemen, that neither France nor 
Europe have been free from misapprehensions. Light did not at 
first dawn upon the nature of the salutary but painful crisis through 
which you are passing; it was not plain to all, at the outset, tliat 
the work inaugurated by the election of Mr. Lincoln yielded 



notliing in grandeur to tliat wliicli your fatliers accomplislied 
with the aid of La Fayette and under the guidance of 
Washington. » 

Europe has had her errors, her hesitations, for which we are 
paying dearly to-day on hoth shores of the Atlantic, What 
blood would have been spared to you, what industrial suffering 
avoided by us, had European opinion declared itself with that 
force which 3-011 had the right to hope for ! There is a protest 
of the universal conscience before which mankind necessarily 
recoils ; moral forces are, after all, the great forces. 
. The revolted South, which needed our aid, which relied, and 
perhaps still relies upon no, would not have long dared to affront 
the indio^nation of the civilized world. 



"S3 



1^ I. 

"Why has this indignation been withheld? Why has a sort of 
favor been granted to the only insurrection which has had 
neither motive nor pretext — to the only one which has dared to 
unfurl the banner of slavery? What has been the merit of this 
insurrection ? By what charm has it conciliated the sympathjr 
of more than one enlightened mind? This is a question humili- 
ating to put, but useful to solve. 

In the first place, Europe doubted whether slavery was the 
real cause of conflict. Strange doubt, in truth ! For many 
years slavery had been the great, the only subject of strife in 
the United States. At the time of the election of Mr. Bu- 
chanan the only issue was slavery. The electoral platforms 
prove this fact ; the manifestos of the South were unanimous in 
this sense ; her party leaders, her governors, her deliberative 
assemblies, her press, spoke but of slavery ; the Vice-President 
of the insurgent Confederacy had made haste to declare offi- 
cially that the mission of the new State was to present to the 



admiration of mankind a society founded on the " corner-stone '> 
of slavery. Lastly, it wonld seem that to all reflecting minds the 
acts of Mr. Buchanan and other Presidents named by the 
South were proof enough of this truth. The South thinks only 
of slavery. In her eyes all means are right to secure to slavery 
its triumphs and boundless conquests. 

But, it is objected that Mr. Lincoln and his friends were not 
abolitionists. That is certain ; their programme went no 
further than to stop the extension of slavery, and shut it out 
from the territories. Was this nothing? Was it not, in fact, 
every thing ? Who could have foreseen that, on the appearance 
of such a programme, of a progress so unexpected, of an attack 
80 bold upon the policy which was lowering and ruining the 
Uiiited States, the friends of liberty would not all have hastened 
to applaud ? Was not this the time to cheer and strengthen 
those who were thus entering on the good path ? Was it not 
due to urge them on in their liberal tendencies, so that, the first 
step taken, they should take the second, and go on to the end ? 
Ought not that which terrified and dismayed the champions of 
slavery to rejoice the hearts of its adversaries ? 

Your letter, gentlemen, puts in bold relief the reasons which 
hindered Mr, Lincoln from adopting at the outset an abolition 
policy. The President could disregard neither his oath of ofiice 
nor the Federal Constitution ; he had also to keep in mind the 
opposition which a plan of emancipation would encounter in the 
loyal States. The head of a great government cannot act with 
the freedom of a philosopher in his study. In simple truth, Mr. 
Lincoln should be accused neither of timidity nor indifterence. 
Your letter recalls the measures of his presidency, abolition of 
elavery in the capital and in the District of Columbia, the pro- 
claiming of freedom to fugitive slaves, the principle of compen- 
sated emancipation submitted to all the loyal States, the death 
penalty actually inflicted on captains of slavers, the treaty with 



e 



England admitting the riglit of search, the establishment of 
diplomatic relations with the black Republics of Liberia and 
Hajti, the arming of free negroes, and at last, when the length 
and gravity of the war sanctioned an extreme exercise of the 
powers of commander-in-chief, the absolute and final suppres- 
sion of slavery in all the revolted States. 

"We, gentlemen, are abolitionists ; and we declare that we 
have never hoped nor wished for a more steady, rapid, and 
resolute progress. We have understood the difficulties which 
surrounded Mr. Lincoln. "We have honored his scruples of con- 
science Avith regard to the Constitution of his country, which 
stopped his path. "We have admired the courageous good sense 
with which he moved straight on, the instant he could so do 
without danger to his cause or violation of the law. 

Wonder is expressed that slavery is abolished in the revolted 
States, and yet preserved in the loyal States ! In other words, 
there is wonder that he who has sworn to obey the Constitution 
should respect it. Let no one take alarm at this. There is no danger 
that the " domestic institution " crushed in the Carolinas and 
Louisiana will long survive in Kentucky or Maryland, Already, 
as you have stated to us, a solemn proposition has been made to 
all the loyal States ; already one of the most important, Missouri, 
has set the example of acceptance. To bo thus uneasy about the 
maintenance of slavery in the North argues to our minds quite 
too much tenderness for the ' South. We look with suspicion 
upon this pretended abolitionism whose unfriendly exactions 
were first put forth on the very day illumined in America by 
the dawn of abolition. We frankly say we could never have 
foreseen that the election of Mr, Lincoln, and the several acts 
which we have just enumerated, would be an endless cause of 
complaint and distrust and unworthy denunciation from so 
many men who plume themselves in Europe upon their hatred 
of slavery. 



And since to destroy the North in public opinion it was not 
enough to accuse it of too much favor for slavery, another 
grievance Jias been found. The North oppressed the Soutli! 
The struggle was of two nationalities ! The South had risen for 
independence ! 

Its independence ! There were, then, subject provinces in the 
heart of the Union ? Doubtless these provinces had no part in 
the government of the country — the South had not the same 
rights as the North ? Of course the South was held in this state 
of inferiority and subjection by numerous Federal garrisons ? 
Not at all. All the States enjoyed the same rights, took like 
part in elections. If any section was favored, it was the South, 
to which a further suffrage was granted in proportion to the 
number of its slaves. If any advantage had been enjoyed, it 
was by the South, which had given the majority of Presidents 
and chief officers. Yet in tliis free country — a country without 
an army, and whose material means as well as laws were a suf- 
ficient barrier against oppression — in such a country we are 
told of a province claiming independence ! 

We are of your opinion, gentlemen, that independence and 
nationality are words too noble to be abused. In their abuse, 
things are compromised, and the more noble and sacred these 
things, the more careful should we be not' to confound them 
with what is neither noble nor sacred — a revolt in the name of 
slavery, a fratricidal revolt which would destroy a free Consti- 
tution, and tear asunder a common country, for fear lest there 
might be interference with the internal slave traffic, the con- 
tinued breeding in Virginia, the sale and separation of families, 
Rud lest perchance some territories should be shut out from 
the conquests of slavery. 

In vain we seek in the United States for a nationality strivmg 
to regain its independence. Not only has independence been 
nowhere assailed, but there is absolutely no trace of a separate 



6 



nationality. Nowhere, perhaps, is there a more thorough 
national homogeneity. ]!^orth and South the race is the same ; 
faith, language, history, and, we boldly add, interests are all the 
game. All these States have struggled together, suffered to- 
gether, triumphed together. Their glories, their defeats, are 
common. Their Constitution sprung from the free consent of 
all; all pledged themselves alike to remain faithful to its 
obligations. 

This pledge is no empty word with which caprice may idly 
sport. Among the inventions of our epoch, there is none more 
extraordinary than the o'ight of secession. Those who discovered 
it will no doubt teach us where it should stop. If each section 
has a right of secession fi'om the country as a whole, why not 
each state a right of secession from such section ? Why not 
each county a right of secession from the State? AVliy not 
each town a right of secession from the county? AYiiy not 
each citizen a right of secession from the town 1 

The truth is, that, but for slavery, the South would not talk 
of its suppressed independence, nor of tlie right of secession. 
Slavery has brought the two sections to strife. The extinction 
of slavery will restore Unity. The North and the South will 
some day wonder that they could have failed to appreciate the 
most complete and homogeneous of nationalities, 

A last resort remains. That we here may not see the great 
struggle on the subject of slavery, an attempt is made to pre- 
sent the struggle as one for domination. 

But this latter struggle is the very life of free countries. It is 
not sui^jrising that the North and the South each strove actively, 
energetically, noisily, for the triumph of tlieir candidate and 
policy. But when one of them, losing the battle of the ballot, 
plunges without hesitation into another kind of battle ; when it 
resists, arms in hand, the result of a regular election ; when on 
the very day that it ceases to rule it tears mto li-agments tJie 



common countiy, it is guilty of a crime for wliicli it is difficiilt 
to imagine an excuse. 

II. 

You will crush tlie revolt, gentlemen. You will succeed — 
such is our belief— in re-establishing the Union. It will emerge 
from the bloody trial stronger, more free, more worthy of the 
noble destiny to which God summons it. 

It has been demonstrated to us, it is true, that the re-estab- 
lishment of the Union was impossible; but was it not also 
demonstrated tons, and by irrefutable argument, that you would 
be always, and of necessity, defeated ; that you would never 
know how to handle a musket; that recruiting would be- 
come impracticable; that your finances would be exhausted; 
that your loans would not be taken ; that you would become 
bankrupt ; that riots would ravage your cities ; that your Gov- 
ernment would be overthrown. You have given to all these 
oracles the simplest and best answer. You will reply in the 
same manner to those who assert that the re-establishment of the 
Union is impossible. 

"What seems really impossible is not to restore the Union. 
Where draw the line between North and South ? How main- 
tain between them a state of peace, or even of truce ? How 
shall Slavery and Liberty live side by side? How, moreover, 
restrain the South from European protectorates, and by what 
means arrest the friglitful consequences of such protectorates ? 
Geographically, morally, politically, separation would create an 
unnatural situation, a situation violent and hazardous, where 
each would live, arms in hand, waiting for the hour of conflict. 
We have full faith, gentlemen, that such a trial will be spared 
to you. It is not that we overlook the difficulties which still 
remain for you to overcome ; they are great— greater perliaps 
than we imagine. War has its vicissitudes, and you may per 



10 



Iiaps be yet called upon to pass through periods of ill-fortune. 
Yet, one fact always remains, and shows on which side the final 
triumph will be found, supposing that there be no foreign inter- 
vention. The flag of the Union has now, for two years, never 
paused in its advance. It floats to-day over the soil of every 
revolted State without excejotion. The South has had its victo- 
ries ; it has never gained an inch of ground. The North has 
had its defeats ; it has never fallen back. Master to-day of the 
entire course of the Mississippi, master of the Border States and 
of Louisiana, all that remains is to stifle the revolt in the narrow 
territory where it first burst forth and back to which it has been 
driven. We believe that you will succeed in this ; for Europe, 
the only hope of the South, seems now little disposed to give 
her aid. 

In short, the rebellion is already reduced to such narrow pro- 
portions, that should it ever become a distinct confederation, 
accepted as such from weariness of war, the confederacy thus 
created will not be born with the functions of life. Neither 
European recognition nor your own could give it a serious 
chance of duration. It would end in a return to you. But we 
delight to believe the re-establishment of the Union less distant. 
And in the presence of that prospect which thrills our hearts 
with joy, permit us, us your friends, to offer you some sincere 
advice. The dangers of victor}'-, you are aware, are not less 
than those of the combat. We give you, therefore, our loyal, 
frank opinion, sure that in the main it will agree with yonr own, 
and feeling, also, that these communications between us have 
an aim more serious than a simple exchange of words of 
sympathy. 

We hold it to be of the first importance that the cause of the 
war shall not survive the war ; that your real foe, slavery, shall 
not remain upon the field. We have often asked ourselves, these 
last three years, why God permitted the prolongation of this 



11 

bloody struggle. "Was it not tliat the real issue might present 
itself with perfect clearness ? Conquering earlier, the Federal 
Government would, perhaps, have been led to make concessions, 
to enter anew upon the fatal path of compromise. To-day all 
eyes, not willingly blind, see clearly. The New York riot, 
breaking out at an appointed day to aid the invasion of Lee, 
and falling instantly upon the negro in a way to show to every 
witness of its cowardly ferocity what kind of spirit animated 
certain friends of the South— the :N'ew York riot was a supreme 
warning to your country. Your line of action is clearly traced. 
So long as anything of slavery remain, there will be a cause of 
antagonism in the bosom of the Union. There must be no 
longer any question of slavery. It must be so ordered and 
settled as never to return. An amendment to the Constitution 
to this end must be proposed and adopted before the return of 

the States. 

The condition of the free blacks must also be secured against 
the ini(piities which they have so long endured. N'o more plans 
of colonization abroad, no more disabling laws, no more in- 
equality. Those whom you have armed, who fought so bravely 
before the walls of Tort Hudson and Fort Wagner, can never 
be other than citizens. Leave the problem of the races to it3 
own solution— the most natural solutions are always the best. 
Under the rule of the connnon law, the free blacks of the South 
and of the North will find their legitimate place in your society, 
of which they will become useful members, honorable and 

honored. 

In thus ordering in a definitive manner all that relates to 
slavery and the colored race you will have done more than is 
generally imagined for the lasting pacification of the South. 
What remains for you to do on this point may be stated in 
three words— 3foderation, Generosity, Liberty. 

There can be no question, as you have often said, of an occu- 



12 



pation of tlie South, of a conquest of tlie South, of reducmg the 
Southei'u States to the condition of provinces wliere the con- 
queror will maintain his garrisons and the public life will be 
suspended. Save in the districts jet ravaged by guerillas and in 
the heart of Avhich the Federal troops must finish their work, 
victory will everywhere bring with the re-establishment of the 
Union the i*e-establishment as promptly as possible of Constitu- 
tional rights. You hope, gentlemen, that those whom you con- 
quer to-day will to-morrow meet you in debate, and you will 
accept in all their truth the struggle of the press, of the legis- 
lative hall, and of the ballot which will replace the strife of the 
battle-field. 

We all feel it is much better that you should have to encoun- 
ter difficulties fruitful of liberty, than that you should seek for 
yourselves the deceitful advantages of a dictatorial regime. To 
apply to the South an exceptional rule would be, alas, quite 
easy. It would be easy also to pronounce the death penalty, to 
outlaw, to execute confiscation bills ; but in treading this path 
of vulgar tyranny you would sacrifice two things — your high 
renown in the present, a lasting Union with the South in the 
future. 

But if, on the other hand, you show the world the novel spec- 
tacle of victory without reprisals, of liberty strong enough to 
Burvive civil war ; if 3-our Constitution remain, and slavery 
alone fall in such a conflict ; if on the morrow of the struggle 
the hiAv remain supreme, if elections for the Senate and House 
of Representatives be again open as in the old time, if the rep- 
resentatives of the Southern States reappear at AVashi]igt on; if, 
taking the oath to be faithful to the Union and to sup})ort the 
modilied Constitution, they lind themselves on a footing 
of perfect equality with the representatives of the North ; if 
it is permitted to them to attack and to embarrass tlie Govern- 
ment, — ^j'^ou will have won the most glorious of victories, and as- 



IS 

surcd to your country the best chance of prosperity and great- 
ness. 

Accept, gentlemen, in the advice which we tender to you, a 
proof of our esteem. It is not of every government, it is not of 
every people, that such things can be asked. Protracted civil 
wars tend to arbitrary customs, stir up passions and hates, and 
at last engender a development of military power and irrespon- 
sible authority which generally hinders a return to control, to 
free opinion, and to the strict letter of the law. We honor the 
United States enough to believe that they will be capable of set- 
ting us this too, after so many other examples. 

The moderation which We hope for from you at home, we 
look for also from you abroad. Assuredly on the morrow of tlie 
submission of the South there will not be wanting a class of 
persons eager to recall to you wrongs, real or fancied, suffered 
at the hands of this or that power. They will point to your ar- 
mies and disposable fleets. They will prove to you that a for- 
eign war is perhaps the surest way to draw together the two 
sections so lately hostile. They will tell you that a common 
enmity, common dangers, are the cement needed to strengthen 
your shattered edifice. 

You will not believe them, gentlemen. You will feel that 
after these jars it is needful before all else to restore to Amer- 
ica peace and liberty. You will not seek new adventures and 
thus lengthen the temptation of dictatorships, the peril of ex- 
ceptional rule. 

You will fear a return to the aggressive policy which, with its 
invasions and turbiilence, the influence of the South forced upon 
you, the day when, to assure the extension of slavery, it awak- 
ened in your hearts a wicked covetousness, and pushed you al- 
most to the violation of the law of nations. Yom- glory will be 
to take the oi^posite of those violent declarations, of those fillibus- 
tering expeditions, of those unscrupulous ambitions. 



14 



The temptations which a great army excites are of the class 
most difficult to repress. May you not hesitate to reduce your 
forces after peace ! Not only your material prosperity but your 
very liberty is involved in disarming, in a reduction of your ex- 
penses, and a return to the old idea of small armies and small 
budgets. 

But Ave do not deceive ourselves. Tour small armies, do 
what you may, will be large compared with those of three years 
ago. Your military education is completed ; you have replied 
but too well to those who smiled at the recital of your battles of 
18G1. You have learned but too quickly to face death and to 
kill, and what you have learned you will not unlearn. You will 
not return to your former situation. 

But while we do not expect again to see your eiFective force 
at ten thousand men, we do hope that effective forces which are 
now nmnbered by hundreds of thousands will not long be wit- 
nessed on American soil. . 



III. 

Courage ! You have before you one of the most noble worts, 
the most sublime which can be accomplished here below — a work 
in the success of which we are as interested as 3'ourselves — a 
work the success of which will be the honor and the consolation 
of our time. 

This generation will have seen nothing more grand than the 
abolition of slavery (in destroying it with you, you destroy it 
everywhere), and the energetic uprising of a people which, in 
the midst of its growing prosperity, was visibly sinking under 
the weight of the tyranny of the South, the complicity of the 
North, odious laws and compromises. 

Now, at the cost of immense sacrifices, you have stood up 
against the evil ; you have chosen rather to pour out your blood 



15 



and your dollars than to descend further the slope of degrada- 
tion where, rich, united, powerful, you were sure to lose that 
wliich is far nobler than wealtli, or union, or power. 

AVell ! Europe begins to understand, willingly or unwillingly, 
what you have done. In France, in England, everywhere, your 
cause gains ground, and be it said for the honor of the nine- 
teenth century, the obstacle which our ill-will and our evil pas- 
sions could not overcome, the obstacle which the intrigues of the 
South could not surmount, is an idea, a principle. Hatred of 
slavery has been your champion in the Old World. A poor 
champion seemingly. Laughed at, scorned, it seems weak and 
lonely. But what matters it ? Ere the account be closed, prin- 
ciples will stand for something, and conscience, in all human 
affairs, will have the last word. 

This, gentlemen, is what we would say to you in the name of 
all who, with us, and better than ourselves, defend your cause in 
Europe. Your words have cheered us ; may ours, in turn, cheer 
you ! You have yet to cross many a dark valley. More than 
once the impossibility of success will be demonstrated to you ; 
more than once, in the face of some military check or political 
difficulty, the cry will be raised that all is lost. "What matters 
it to you ? Strengthen your cause daily by daily making it more 
just, and fear not : there is a God above. 

We love to contemplate in hope the noble future which seems 
to stretch itself before you. The day you emerge at last from 
the anguish of civil war — and you will surely come out freed 
from* the odious institution which corrupted your public man- 
ners, and degraded yom* domestic as well as your foreign policy — 
that day your whole country. South as well as North, and the 
South perhaps more fully than the North, will enter upon a 
wholly new prosperity. European emigration will hasten 
toward your ports, and will learn the road to those whom until 
now it has feared to approach. Cultivation, now abandoned, 



16 



will renew its yield. Liberty — for these are her miracles — will 
revivify by ber touch the soil which slavery had rendered 
barren. 

Then there will be born unto you a greatness nobler and 
more stable than the old, for in this greatness there will be no 
sacrifice of justice. 

Agenoe de Gasparin. , 

AUGUSTIN CocHm. 

Edouard Laboulaye, 

Member of the Institute of France. 

Henki Marthst. 



Paris, October 31, 1863. 



9 , 



ADDRE S S 



LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE 



Messes. AGENOE DE GASPAEIN, EDOUAED LABOU- 
LAYE, AUGUSTIN COCHIN, IIENEI MAETIN", 

iLND OTHEK EkIENDS OF AmEKICA IN FkANCE. 



BY JAMES McKAYE. 



Gentlemen, — 

The Loyal National League in tlie city of New Y'ork, an 
organization having its ramifications throughout all the loyal 
States, and bound together by the simple pledge " to maintain 
unimpaired the national unity both in idea and territorial bound- 
ary," have charged us with the gratefid duty, in their name, 
to thank you for your disinterested and distinguished services 
in behalf of the American People and Union, in France. 

Amidst the general misapprehension and bewilderment of the 
public opinion of Europe, you have clearly understood and ap- 
preciated the nature of the struggle in which the People and 
Government of the United States are involved, and your perti- 
nent and impressive words have traversed the ocean and have 
inspired us with renewed hope and courage. In the heart of the 
American people, by the side of Washington, stands enshrined 



18 



forever that ancient form of French sympathy, generosity, and 
valor, the Marquis de La Fayette. lie and his companions 
who stood by our fathers, in their great struggle against arbitrary 
power, in the popular imagination, have always represented 
France. Is it strange, then, that their children, treacherously 
assailed in the very citadel of their national life, by a far more 
pernicious and despotic power, should listen with reluctant ear 
to the voices that w'ould persuade them that France had lost the 
clew of her own great career, and, repudiating the traditions of 
her own glory, conspired w^ith such a power to overthrow free- 
dom, the rights of human nature, and Christian civilization in 
America ? The messages you have sent us, have cleared away 
the doubts that weighed upon our hearts, and proved to us, that 
notwithstanding the persistent efforts of the advocates of the 
dave power to conceal its deformities, and to misrepresent tho 
true issues involved in its attack upon American nationality, the 
enlightened and liberal mind of France penetrates the whole 
mass of subterfuges, and sees clearly ou which side lie truth and 
justice. 

We esteem so much the more highly your enlightened and 
just appreciation of the cause for which we contend, inasmuch 
as we cannot shut om* eyes to the fact that many things in the 
manner of conducting it, must seem anomalous to an European 
observer, unacquainted with the more intimate circumstances 
and principles peculiar to our American system and life. 

The supreme necessity of a government founded in the will 
of the people, is to hold their public servants to the most exact 
and inexorable obedience to that will, as expressed in the writ- 
ten constitution — for that is the suj)reme law. To permit 
any assumption of power on the part of any one or all of these 
servants, under the pressure of any exigency, would be to open 
the door to endless ambitions and to incur the hazards of the 
most fatal consequences. Doubtless the founders of our national 
system of government intended, as far as possible, to ignore the 



19 



whole subject of slavery, to leave its interests entirely in the 
hands of the authorities of the several States in which it already 
existed, and to keep them wholly without the jurisdiction of the 
national constitution. For the sake of union they found it ne- 
cessary to recognize it as an existing, but, as they believed, tem- 
porary fact^ but never as a eight ; and so from the period of 
the adoption of the national constitution, the idea of the com- 
plete independence of slavery of the national government had 
been inculcated and strengthened. Its masters called it an. 
institution^ to put it upon a level with the fundamental law, 
the constitution itself. They moreover, at an early day, pos- 
sessed themselves of its supreme judicial powers, and had thus 
in their own hands its interpretation, Tliey proceeded to wrest 
its meaning to their own purposes, and to make of it an instru- 
ment for the perpetual maintenance of human bondage, instead 
of giving to it the true sense of its framers, a charter of liberty 
for all men. By allying themselves with a prevalent democracy 
at the North, they were able to instil and establish these inter- 
pretations, first in the popular mind of the whole country, and 
thence in much of the legislation of the national government. 
And if, with all this, you will bear in mind that the constitution, 
to the American citizen, stands in the place of the person of the 
sovereign, in the monarchical systems of Europe; that to it he 
owes paramount allegiance ; that it is the supreme object of his 
loyalty, you will be the better able to understand the apparent 
hesitancy of the national government to strike at the existonco 
of slavery, even in repelling its own blow at the life of the 
nation. 

To destroy slavery, the acknowledged canse of the war, and 
at the same time to preserve intact the wise inhibitions of the 
constitution, according to the settled construction of that instru- 
ment, has been from the beginning a question of no little prac- 
tical difficulty to the national administration. To carry on the 
war it must have the hearty support of the country. To be 



20 



sure of this support, it must not outrun pre-estauHshed public 
opinion. To enlighten and correct public opinion, time is neces- 
sary. Let us assure you that your own generous efforts to en- 
lighten the public opinion of Europe have effected much to the 
same end here, and that the whole loyal country is fast coming 
up to the just and only solution of the great question in issue. 
The President's recent proclamation of emancipation is a proof; 
for, while it by no means completes the work, even in idea, it ia 
at least a great step in the right direction. Issued under his 
constitutional powers as commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy of the United States, and as a measure of war, its direct 
operation must of necessity be restricted to such districts of 
country as still remain in imsubdued rebellion ; but indirectly, 
and as a ground of right to freedom for the slave, its sco])e is 
much wider and more important. In any view of it, it surely 
deserves the hearty sympathy and support of all the enlightened 
lovers of liberty and progress, rather than such captious and 
unworthy criticisms as that of the English minister. Lord John 
Russell is the minister of a constitutional government ; he can- 
not be ignorant what rights of war a conmiander-in-chief may 
exercise ; he knows that the rights of war are restricted to the 
theatre of the war, and that under every constitutional govern- 
ment, power, in theory at least, is restricted to the exercise of 
rights. 

We are glad to perceive, from a quite recent letter of your 
great historian and publicist, a name honored equally by the 
enlightened men of this country as of yours, that this act of 
our Chief Magistrate is clearly understood and appreciated in 
France. We are sure, also, that you do not misjudge our at- 
tachment to the forms of our institutions, for you understand 
that we value these forms, only, for the great principles and 
ideas of liberty and human justice which they embody, and 
because we believe them to constitute the surest guarantee for 



21 



tlie preservation and popular enjoyment of these principles and 
ideas. 

Another ground of popular misapprehension, on your side of 
the Atlantic, as to the true issues at stake in our stmggle, may 
very naturally have arisen out of the fact that in all the revolu- 
tionary movements of modern Europe, the insurgents have usually 
represented liberty, nationality, and progress, while the govern- 
ments represented, if not arbitrary power, at best aidJior'dy 
only, and the status quo. Here, on the contrary, exactly the 
reverse is true. Here the insurrection represents a power 
founded upon the utter annihilation of the commonest human 
rights — a boasted repudiation of all ideas of liberty and pro- 
gress ; while the national government, founded upon the prin- 
ciples of the Declaration of IndeiJendence of 1776, " the self- 
evident truths that all men are created equal, and are endowed 
by their Creator with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness," wars only to preserve the institutions 
in which these rights are embodied, and under which alone they 
can be maintained in the present exigency. But with all this, 
it is not difficult to see how the European mercenaries of the 
elave power, skillfully concealing the true character of its atro- 
cious attempt to overthrow free government in America, and 
stealing the battle cry of the oppressed nationalities of the Old 
World — " National Indepexdence " — should have been able to 
bewilder the public opinion, and draAv to its shameless cause 
much of the sympathy of the popular heart of Em'ope, even of 
France. 

Assuming, for the occasion, the part of the oppressed, these 
frenzied devastators of a whole race of men, have not hesitated 
to charge the loyal people of the JSTorth and the national gov- 
ernment, with fighting only for dominion. " You fight," say 
they, "not for freedom, not for the emancipation of the en- 
elaved, but only for the maintenance of power." The slightest 
examination will prove how unfounded and nefarious is this 



22 



cliarge. The wTiole controversy in the election of Mr. Lincoln 
tui-ned upon the question of tlie h'mitation of the area of slavery. 
The Republican party, who made him their candidate and 
carried him into office, planted themselves npon the simple 
ground of limiting slavery to the lines within which it already 
existed. This attempt to resist the arrogant demand of the 
slave masters to appropriate to their own use the whole of the 
still unoccupied domain of the nation, constituted the whole 
offence of the People of the United States in that election. 
They simply said to them, the national domain and the na- 
tional Government belong to us as well as you. Liberty is our 
heritage, and henceforth we mean that it shall have its rights in 
both goverament and domain. 

Ko other ground of oifence than this had the slave power for 
tearing asunder our national unity, no other excuse for the un- 
paralleled crime of beginning the present war to destroy the na- 
tional life. These facts are patent to the whole world. Who 
then is it, that is fighting for dominion ? 

"We do not mean to say, that the diabolical exigencies of 
slavery do not necessitate the illimitable appropriation of territory 
and the unrestrained exercise of dominion which is demaiftled 
for it. Doubtless, like every other system of authority founded 
in mere power without right, slavery requires that its mastei'S 
should be masters also of the law-making power of the gov- 
ernment under which it exists. 

Let the friends of the slave power in Europe have the benefit 
of the admission, that the exigencies of a slave society demand 
for its maintenance universal dominion, and the ultimate inva- 
sion of all the territories, that may at any given period lie adja- 
cent to its boundaries. Thence not only all the territories of the 
Union, but when these should be absorbed, all Mexico and the 
South American States. Its inevitable instincts have already 
made themselves manifest in the various predatory expeditions, 
that from time to time have been set on foot at the South. 



2^ 

These were but a kind of offshoot of its exuberant and mon- 
strous vitality ; but they serve to illustrate the nature of the 
slave power. 

In stripping from it the veil of sophistries with* which it has 
sought to conceal its enormities, you have not only rendered a 
great service to our national cause, but to the cause of public 
justice and Christian civilization everywhere. For the cause of 
the Union is the cause of humanity, unless it is to be taken for 
granted that the public morality of Christendom requires that 
the United States should abdicate the character of a nation ia 
the interests of the power which assails it. If the true nature of 
this power could be clearly presented to the public conscience 
of France, we should fearlessly rest ourselves upon its verdict. 
As it is, we cannot so much blame the general misapprehen- 
sion, which has caused it not only to be tolerated, but to be 
clothed with a certain popular esteem, as well as with certain 
public rights, by the peoples and authorities of Europe, when 
we remember that even here, in the more immediate arena of its 
crimes, the j^eculiar character of American slavery has not 
hitherto been thoroughly apprehended by the popular mind. 

Simple slavery is not a modern form of inhumanity. The 
annals of our race are full of the groans of the enslaved. But 
hitherto slavery has founded itself upon power — has rested its 
claim in the might of the strongest — has been content to enjoy 
its profits in the category of things without remedy. In no 
age of human history until now, has it ever been attempted to 
clothe slavery with the Sacredness of Right. The distinguished 
infamy belongs to the founders of the Southern confederacy, of 
setting up a government, whose corner stone, to use the lan- 
guage of one of the most notorious of them, Alex. II. Ste]>hen8, 
is " the RIGHT of the superior race to enslave the inferior." " This 
rio-ht," he says, " settles forever the agitating question of Am- 
erican Slavery ;" and boastfully declares that " our new g^ov- 



u 



crnment is the first in tlie history of the world, based upon this 
great physical, philosophical, and moral truth." 

The announcement is a sufficient notice to all the world. Tlie 
establishment \)f the Southern confederacy is not alone the set- 
ting up of a new power upon the earth, but the introduction 
into the public law of the civilized world of a new eight ; and 
into the family of nations of a new form of civilization. 

It is in this aspect of our struggle, that it becomes of the 
deepest interest to the people of France and to all men. An 
attempt to supplant the laws founded by the Divine Master of 
these Christian centuries, by a new code, derived from the reek- 
ing shambles of the King of Dahomey, is an enterprise in which 
the people of the tfeited States are not alone interested. 

Is it possible that the idea can be anywhere entertained, that 
the glory of France or the permanent well-being of her people, 
requires the successful prosecution of this atrocious enterprise 
on this continent ? Will she aid in the overthrow of a na- 
tionality founded upon the principles of her own great revo- 
lution, and cemented by the blood of her noblest sons, for 
the sake of any profits to be derived from the meretricious 
embraces of such an ally ? At the South they make a com- 
merce out of their own blood, when it flows under a colored 
skin. That doubtless is in accordance with the new con- 
federate code. For the sake of national recognition, the new 
confederate power would allow any respectable nation to par- 
ticipate in all the benefits of this commerce as well as of the trade 
in cotton. We cannot be persuaded that France will be the 
first to take advantage of the ofier. 

If at the instant of the slave master's attempt to force the new 
right into the public code of the Christian world, the govern- 
ments of France and England had promptly refused to accept it 
— if they had simply declared that no state founded upon any 
such atrocious right should ever be admitted into the family of 



25 ' 

Christian nations — the struggle would never have taken the 
disastrous form of war. There would have been no idle and 
starving spinners and weavers in Lancashire, no iinemployed 
and famishing workpeople at Rouen and Mulhouse. Even 
now these governments have it in their power to say the word 
that shall at once put an end to the pernicious hopes that 
prolong our disasters, and the continually more and more ag- 
gravated sufferings of their own peoples. 

As for us, we know now that the issues at stake, in the war 
which we wage, belong to humanity ; we know also how momen- 
tous they are, and that the great question is not as to the day 
or month or year in which peace shall be declared, but as to 
the hour in which the imjnous right organized by the slave 
power into a Confederacy of States, shall be utterly overthrown 
and extinguished. If we doubted as to our duty in such a crisis, 
we should turn to one of you and learn, that " a People accus- 
tomed to liberty, should risk their last man and their last dollar 
to keep the inheritance of their fathers " — "that the dismember- 
ment of the Union — the rending asunder of the country, would 
be degradation without remedy." 

We would by no means speak boastfully of the military suc- 
cesses of the armies of the Union. A singularly peaceful peo- 
ple, like those of the JSTorthern States, do not learn war in a 
day. Besides, this is emphatically a war of ideas, and they take 
time to put on their armor and march. Still, an inspection of 
the map of the insurgent States, will show you, that some por- 
tion of every one of them, is already in the occupation of our 
military forces. Let us assure you, that the present condition 
of these forces, both physically and morally, never was as good 
as at this hour, nor their future success so well assured. At the 
same time, let us further assure you that the resources of the 
people of the loyal States, both in men and money, remain un- 
exhausted, and still adequate, as we believe, to the work which 
Providence has committed to then- hands. 



26 



And again thanking you for the many just and inspiring 
words you have spoken in belialf of the great cause for which we 
fight, let us express to you our hope and our belief, that when 
the end of our battle shall come, neither you nor we shall be 
made ashamed by the result. 

With sentiments of the highest individual esteem we remain, 
respectfully yours, 



COUNCIL-. 



CHARLES KING, 
GEORGE OPDYKE, 
Wir,LTAM CULLEN BRYANT, 
JOHN A. ST K YENS, 
JOHN J. CISCO, 
MORRIS KETCHUM, 
WILLIAM CURTIS NOTES, 
C. V. S. ROOSEVELT, 
WILLIAM F. GARY, 
JOHN C. GREEN, 

MOSES 



CHARLES A. HECKSCHER, 
FRANCIS LIEBER, 
JAMES McKAYE, 
WILLIAM E. DODGE, 
FRANCIS GEO. SHAW, 
ROBERT BAYARD, 
CHARLES BUTLER, 
J AS. W. WHITE, 
W. H. WEBB, 
E. CAYLUS, 
TAYLOR. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



JOHN COCHRANE, 
GEORGE GRISWOLD, 
FRANKLIN H. DELANO, 
JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, 
J. BUTLER WRIGHT. 
JAMES A. ROOSEVELT, 
ADRIAN ISELIN, 
THOMAS N. DALE, 
WOLCOTT GIBBS, 
WILLIAM A. HALL, 
ISAAC H. BAILEY, 
GEORGE CABOT WARD, 



JOHN JAY, 
C. E. DETMOLD, 
ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY, 
Je., FREDERICK C. WAGNER, 

GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 
THEODORE G. GLAUBENSKLEE, 
WILLIAM E. DODGE, Je., 
PARKE GODWIN, 
ORISON BLUNT, 
WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, 
SYDNEY HOWARD GAY, 
WILLIAM ORTON. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE. 



At a Meeting of the CorNciL and Executite Coivemittee of 
THE Loyal National League of Neav Yokk, held on thk 
23d Makch, 1863, it was unanimously * 

Resolved, That the officers of the Loyal J^ational League, 
have heard with interest and satisfaction that the Loyal Pub- 
lication Society of the city have in course of preparation letters 
of thanks to the able defenders of the cause of om- National 
Unity in England and France, among whom are included those 
distinguished advocates of civil liberty, whose fame is not cir- 
cumscribed by country, or by race, John Stuart Mill, Richard 
Cobden, John Bright, I. F. Cairnes, ]SI"E^\Td:AN Hall, and 
others, in England, and Edouard Laboulaye, Agenor de Gas- 
PAuiN, and others, in France ; and they request, in behalf of the 
League, that these letters may be submitted to the Council of 
this League; and on approval, be recommended for adoption at 
the Great Mass Meeting, to be called on the 11th of April, on 
Union Square, to the end that these noble men, loyal to the 
principle of nationality, may receive a just acknowledgment oi 
their service from a free and grateful people. 

Charles King, 
James A. Eoosevelt, Chah^man. 

Secretary. 



28 



ADOPTION OF THE LETTER BY THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE. 

In accordance with tlie request of tlie Loyal National League, 
an address was drafted by Mr. James McKaye, on belialf of 
of the Loyal Publication Society, which was submitted to the 
great mass meeting of the League, on Union Square, on the 
11th of April, and adopted with enthusiasm. 



PROCEEDINGS 

OF THE , 

LOYAL KATIOML LEAGUE. 



a ivieetii^g of the councii. and executive co^rmtttee of the 
Loyal National League was held at the Hall of the 
League on the 18th Decesibee, 1863, in puesuance of the 

. following call : 

HALIi OF THE LOTAL NATIONAL LeAGUK, ) 

813 Broadway, N. Y. \ 

Dear Sir : 

A letter of reply to " The Address of the Loyal National League to 
Messrs. the Count de Gasparin, Laboulaye, Cochin, Martin, and other friends 
of America in France," has been lately received. A translation will be read 
to the Council and Executive Committee on Friday Evening next, 18th inst., 
at 8 P. M., at the Hall of the League. 

Your presence is particularly requested at the hour named. 
Respectfully yours, 

Francis Lieber, 
John Austin Stevens, Jr. 
December 15, 1863. 

Hon. John Cochkane was called to the chair. 

Mr. John Austin Stevens, Jr., appointed Secretary. 

Dr. Francis Lieber stated that he had received by the liands 
of Mr. Samuel B. Ruggles, from Mr. Edouaed Laboulaye, of 
Paris, the " lieply of Messrs. Gaspakin, Laboulaye, Cochin, 
Martin, and other friends of America in F.rance," to the Addres3 
of the League ; that a translation had been made, at his request, 
by Mr. John Austin Stevens, Jr., wliich would now be read to 
the Joint Committee. 

The translation was then read by Mr. Stevens, and on motion, 
xmanimously accepted and adopted. 



30 



At tlie instance of Mr. Stevens lie was authorized to have a 
copy of tlie translation liandsomely engrossed and forwarded to 
the Hon. S. P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, with a request 
to place it in the hands of the Pkesipent of the United States 
prior to its puhlication. 

On motion. Dr. Francis Lieber, Mr. John Austin Stevens, 
Jr., and Charles Butler, Esq., were appointed a Committee to 
superintend the puhlication of the original and translation ox 
the Reply, together with the Letter of the League, and to take 
such measures in conjunction with a Committee of the Loyal 
Publication Society of New York as shall be necessary to this 
end. 

On motion, it was Resolved that the translated Reply he pub- 
lished simultaneously in the New York Trilune^ Times and 
Herald^ if arrangements can be satisfactorily made. 

On motion, it was Ordered., that ten thousand copies of the 
translated Reply be printed, and a sufficient number of copies 
of the original French letter and the complete pamphlet. 

On motion, it was Ordered^ that the original manuscript be 
handsomely bound and presented to the managers of the Me- 
tropolitan Fair in behalf of the Sanitary Commission. 

On motion Dr. Francis Lieber w'as requested to acknowledge 
receipt of the letter to Mr. Laboulaye at an early day. 

And with expressions of admiration for the noble sentiments 
of the Letter, and of renewed gratitude to our French friends, 
the Committee adjourned. 

John Cochrane, 

Chairman. 
John Austin Stevens, Jr., 

Secrciary, 



The LoYAi: PujJUCA'iioxV Sogieti lias already issued a larpje 
umber of Slips and Pamphlets wLidi have been widely cir- 
alatcd. Amoiifijst the most important are tlio following: 



n. 

\?.. 
M. 

^r,. 

IG. 
17. 

18. 

19. 
20. 
•21. 



21. 

25. 
2G. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 



Future of the North "West, by Uohert Dtile Chrtu. 

Echo from the Army. 

Unio'.i MaSs Meeting, Specclies o*^ IlraJij^ Van. /lun-n., it'.- 

Three Voioes: t'lo Soldier, Fanner and J'oct. 

Voices froia tlio Army. 

Northern True Mo;i. 

Speech of Major-Gcncnil Butler, 

Separation; War without Eiiil. A\L LabouUv/.: 

Ti ;• v.-..:, ;v.;Uho Antidoto. 

bolialf of the f.oyal Vv'onicn of tlic United 

State?., bv Oi^r of Tliemselves. 

-X.L,.,: ,. ..,, ., [:-..iUcMjn'Jtli/. 

A(ldro;~s to King Cotton. Eagme Pelldan. 

iro.v ;i l\c>e People conduct a long War. SUru- 

The- rro:;frvation of the Union, a National Ecoui'inio .Ni, i,\ .--iiv . 

Elements of Di.=;cor J;: in Seccssia, &c., kc. 

Xo Party lio^r, Init all fur our Country, Francis Lieber. 

Tiif; Cause of the War. Col Charles Anderson. 

Ojiinions of the early Pre.sldonts and of the Fathers of tlie 

riO[vablie upon Slavery, and upon Negroes as Men and Soldiers. 

(Einl)cit unb i^rciljdt, von Hermann H after. 

^rilitary l)e?poti.-m ! Suspension of the Habeas Corpus I ki\. 
T.ctter addres.'^ed t<> the Opera-1 louse Mooting, Cincinnati, 

l)y Col. Cliarles Anderson. 
lMua!icii>ation ii^ l'eac<'. IJt/ Robert Dale Owen. 
Letter of T\-tor Cooper on Slave Emancipation. 
Patrictisni. Sermon by the AVf, Jos. Fransioli, of St. Peter's 

(Catholic) Church, Brooklyn. 
The Conditions of Peconstruction, by Robert Dale Owen. 
Letter to the I'retident, by Gen. A. J. Hamilton, of Texas^. 
Nullification and Compromise : a Retrospective View. 
The Death of Slaver}'. Letter from Peter Cooper to Gov. S. y ukuu-. 
Slavery Plantations and the Yeomanry, F)-anci<i Lieber. 
Rebel Conditions of Peace. 




012 027 576 8 

31. Addicss of tlie Loyal Leagues. 

32. "War Power of the President — Sumninry Imprisonment — 

by <7. IleermaiiH. 

33. The Two Ways of Treason. 

34. The Monroe Doctrine, by Edward Everett, ka. 
3.5. The Arguments of Secessionists. Francis Lieber. 

3G. Prophecy and Fulfillment. Letter of A. TI. Stephens — Address oi 

E. W. Gantt. 

37. How the South Rejected Compromise, &c. Speech of Mr. Chase. 

38. Letters on our National Stm.gcle. Hy Brigadier. General Tliomas 

Francis Meac/lier. 

39. Bil)le View of Slavery, by Jolni IT. Hopkins, D. D., Bishop of tlie 

Diocese of Vermont. Examined by Henry DrisUr. 

40. The Conscription Act : .'i Series of Articles. B}' Geo. B. BidUr.N.Y. 



Loyal Leagues, Clnbs, or iudividuals iiuiy obtain any of our 
Publications at the cost price, by application to the Executive 
Committee, or by calling at the Eooms of the Society, No. SC3 
Broadway, wliere all information may be obtained relating to 
the Society. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






012 027 576 8 # 



